International Liquid Crystal Society
Minutes of Officers and Board Directors Meeting 12:15 a.m. Monday July 24, 2000, Sendaï, Japan
Present
Officers: A. Fukuda (President), J.W. Goodby (Vice-President), D. Guillon (Secretary), P. Palffy-Muhoray (Treasurer), O.D. Lavrentovich (Membership Secretary).
Members of the Board of Directors:
Patricia E. Cladis (Chair of the Honors and Awards Committee), Helen Gleeson (Editor of Liquid Crystals Today), J. S. Patel (USA), Shu-Hsia Chen (ROC Taiwan LCS), Shohei Naemura (Japanese LCS), Stephen Picken (Netherlands and Belgium), Nandor Eber (Hungarian LCS), Timothy J. Sluckin (British LCS), M. Copic (Slovenia), A.M. Figueiredo Neto (Ibero-American LCS), H. Takezoe (Japan), H.G. Kubal (Germany), Heino Finkelmann (German LCS), Shui-Chih Alan Lien (USA).
Invited : F. Simoni (Italian LCS, in place of G. Abbate), Shunsuke Kobayashi (ILCC2000 Conference Chair), Tatsuo Uchida (ILCC2000 Executive Conference Chair).
Apologies :
Geoffrey Luckhurst, Giancarlo Abbate, Vicor Yu. Reshetnyak, J. Shashidhara Prasad, Sergei A. Pikin, John Bechhoefer, Philippe Barois, Stanislaw Urban, Sven T. Lagerwall, Noel A. Clark, Gerd Heppke, G. Gottarelli, Anslem C. Griffin, David Dunmur.
OPENING REMARKS
The President, A. Fukuda, welcomed all Officers and Board Directors.
1. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The last meeting of the Board of Directors was held on Tuesday 21 & Thursday 23, July 1998, Strasbourg, France. The minutes have been already circulated by electronic mail in September 1998 and have been implemented on the web site of the Society. They were accepted as a correct record.
2. GENERAL MEETING, AGENDA PROPOSALS
The following agenda has been confirmed for the General Meeting of the Society on Tuesday July 25, 2000:
2-1 Reports
Results of elections : D. Guillon informed the attendees about the results of the vote concerning the elections of the new President and Vice-President of the International Liquid Crystal Society, and concerning the vote on the proposed modifications of the Bylaws (771 letters for inviting vote have been sent).
President : J.W. Goodby (134), R. Shashidhar (114). J.W. Goodby was elected as the new President of the International Liquid Crystal Society.
Vice-President : P. Palffy-Muhoray (172), C. Rosenblatt (75). P. Palffy-Muhoray was elected as the new Vice-President of the International Liquid Crystal Society.
Bylaws amendment : 229 approvals, 8 disapprovals. The amendments of the Bylaws were accepted.
Treasurer’s report : P. Palffy-Muhoray detailed the expenses and income, the balance being positive with $87,842.64 on the 31st December 1999. Treasurer's reports 90-99 are archived at
Membership Secretary’s Report : O. Lavrentovich gave a brief summary of the situation:
Total current (20th July 2000) membership: 885 ILCS members from 51 countries. (Previous audit (July 1998) showed 935 members from 47countries). Among the 885 members, 73 have an expiration date of 1998 or earlier, 97 an expiration date of 1999. These members have not been eliminated because many of them are from countries with currency problems. Membership applications and renewal are available through the web site of the society. The daily help of Mrs. E. Landry and B. Buck (Kent, USA) in keeping and correcting the membership list is acknowledged.
Secure server for ILCS web site : P. Palffy-Muhoray informed the attendees that the secure server is now operating on the Web. Regarding the payment of the members fees, the credit card service will be effective on line in a few months.
Electronic publication of Liquid Crystals Today (LCT) : Helen Gleeson is the new editor of Liquid Crystals Today (in place of David Dunmur). She detailed the memorandum of agreement between the International Liquid Crystal Society and Taylor & Francis Ltd. The memorandum was approved. The next issue of LCT will appear in August 2000.
Affiliation of the Bulgarian Liquid Crystal Society : Alexander G. Petrov has informed the ILCS of the creation of the Bulgarian Liquid Crystal Society, representing 28 members. The Bylaws of the bulgarian society are in agreement with those of ILCS. A. Petrov is the President of the Bulgarian society. Its affiliation to ILCS was approved.
2-2 Honors and Awards Committee
Glenn H. Brown Awards :
P.E. Cladis informed that the Committee (P. Cladis, G. Gray, H.R. Trebin, T. Uchida) of the G. H. Brown Awards received 21 very good nominations. The Committee decided to give the G. H. Brown awards to four young scientists : M. Oh-e, P. Mach, A. Yethiraj and E. Nishikawa. Board of Directors discussed the necessity to have official application forms and a good advertisement, for example in Liquid Crystals journals. It was also proposed to ask the regional representatives to make efficient advertisement. The laureate talks will be chaired by P. Cladis.
ILCS Multimedia Prize
P. Cladis informed the attendees that the Committee has considered the campaign for the prize started too late to receive applications relative to liquid crystals web sites. Therefore, the committee has decided to give the award to a scientist for his results in connection with technological applications. The winner is Hiroyuki Mori.
Honored Members
The status of Honored Members of the ILCS was discussed and approved at
3. BOARD OF DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS FOR 2000-2002
3.1 President and Vice-President
According to the results of the elections, J.W. Goodby P. Palffy-Muhoray are the new President and Vice-President, respectively.
3.2 Board Membership for 2000-2002
Representatives from National Liquid Crystal Societies : the following representatives remain on the Board of Directors: Nandor Eber (Hungarian LCS), Antonio M. Figueiredo Neto (Ibero-American LCS), G. Abbate (Italian LCS), Shohei Naemura (Japan), V. Yu. Reshetnyak (Ukrainian LCS).
The President introduced new representatives from National LCS’s : P. Raynes (British LCS), H. Finkelmann (German LCS), Ru-Pin Pan (ROC Taiwan LCS), S. Torgova (Russian LCS), A.G. Petrov (Bulgarian LCS). Due to difficulties with electronic mails with India, no nomination was received for the replacement of J. Shashidara Prasad (Indian LCS); this point should be solved in the near future.
Regional representatives :
Remaining: S. Picken (Netherlands and Belgium), Stanislaw Urban (Poland), John Bechhoefer (Canada), Philippe Barois (France), Hideo Takezoe (Japan), S. Lagerwall (Scandinavia), N. Clark (USA).
The Board elected new members: H. Kitzerow (Germany), C. Zannoni (Italy), I. Musevic (Slovenia), C.C. Huang (USA). For the replacement of A.C. Griffin and J.S. Patel (USA), the Board proposed P. Collings and B. Meyer; following their agreement, their final nominations was postponed until Thursday 27th July.
3.3 Appointment of Officers
D. Guillon was asked to continue his service as the Secretary; he agreed to serve for one further term.
The Board discussed then the nominations of a new treasurer (in replacement of P. Palffy-Muhoray elected as new Vice-President) and of a new membership secretary (in replacement of O. Lavrentovich who does not want to serve for a further term). It was stressed that the treasurer should be located in Kent where the Society is registered. The final appointment of these officers was postponed until Thursday 27th July.
3.4 Committees’ Chairs
The President informed that P. Cladis (USA) and John Bechhoefer (Canada) remain the Chairs of the Honors and Awards Committee and of the Conference Committee respectively. H. Gleeson is the new chair of the Publication Committee.
S. Kobayashi and T. Uchida indicated that 921 oral and poster presentations from 44 countries were contributed to the Conference ; however not all of the participants were already present. 81 persons from 19 countries have been supported financially. The organizers hoped that the real number of participants by the end of the Conference would be close to the projected number.
Minutes of continuation Board Meeting - 12:15 a.m. Thursday July 27, 2000, Sendaï, Japan
Present
Officers: J.W. Goodby (President), P. Palffy-Muhoray (Vice-President), A. Fukuda (Past President), D. Guillon (Secretary), R. Shashidhar (Membership Secretary).
Members of the Board of Directors:
Patricia E. Cladis (Chair of the Honors and Awards Committee), Helen Gleeson (Editor of Liquid Crystals Today), Ru-Pin Pan (ROC Taiwan LCS), Shohei Naemura (Japanese LCS), Stephen Picken (Netherlands and Belgium), Nandor Eber (Hungarian LCS), Peter Raynes (British LCS), A.M. Figueiredo Neto (Ibero-American LCS), H. Takezoe (Japan), H. Kitzerow (Germany), Heino Finkelmann (German LCS), C. Zannoni (Italy), C.C. Huang (USA), Peter Collings (USA), Robert Meyer (USA), S. Torgova (Rusian LCS), S. Lagerwall (Sweden).
Invited : F. Simoni (Italian LCS, in place of G. Abbate), Shunsuke Kobayashi (ILCC2000 Conference Chair), Tatsuo Uchida (ILCC2000 Executive Conference Chair), G.Gray (ILCC 2002 Chaiman), T. Lubensky.
OPENING REMARKS
The president welcomed the Board, and in particular the new members and thanked Past President Fukuda for his contribution to the Society over the past 4 years. The agenda was resumed.
5. CONFIRMATION OF NEW BOARD MEMBERSHIP FOR 2000-2002, AND ADDITIONAL MEMBERS
Membership Secretary : R. Shashidhar was elected by the board as the new membership secretary of the Society in replacement of O. Lavrentovich.
Treasurer : The board decided to let the representatives from Kent to propose somebody in the near future. In the meantime, P. Palffy-Muhoray will take care of the current situation.
The present composition of the Officers is as follows :
J.W. Goodby, President (UK)
P. Palffy-Muhoray, Vice-President (USA)
D. Guillon, Secretary (France)
Treasurer [Eugene C. Gartland, Jr., of Kent State appointed in
Membership Secretary : R. Shashidhar (USA) December 2000]
A. Fukuda, Past President (Japan)
6. ILCCs
6.1 Sendaï
S. Kobayashi and T. Uchida were invited to give an update on the Conference. The final number of participants was 786 (less than expected), which will create perhaps some problems for the financial balance. 921contributions from 44 countries have been accepted. 81 participants have been financially helped, but 30 of them did not arrive at the Conference. Despite the bad weather, 360 people participated in the excursion and to the banquet.
6.2 2002 Edinburgh
G. Gray was invited to give an update on the next ILCC to be held in Edinburgh., 30 June – 5 July, 2002. The organizing committee is formed with G. Gray (Conference Chairman), J.W. Goodby (Executive Chairman), D.W. Bruce (Executive Secretary), H.J. Coles (Honorary Secretary), I. Stewart (Treasurer), E.P. Raynes and G.R. Luckhurst (Scientific Conference Co-chairs). The Conference will take place in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Besides three parallel scientific sessions, all the posters will be displayed for the whole week. There will be also an exhibition by liquid crystals materials and device manufacturers involved in displays and photonic telecommunications applications. The conference Proceedings will be published in Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals. The conference fees will be about the same as for the present conference.
After 1 October 2000 a Conference web site will be opened : www.ilcc2002.slci.soton.ac.uk/.
6.3 Start to invite bids
The board decided that the bids from institutions interested in hosting the 20th International Liquid Crystal Conference, to be held Summer 2004, are now accepted. Interested parties should send a letter of intent to or request information from John Bechhoefer, Conference Committee Chair (johnb@sfu.ca).
J. Goodby and D. Guillon have been approached by the Tourism Melbourne Office for holding one of the next ILCCs. H. Finkelmann informed the Board that the German LCS is discussing the possibility to propose Berlin for holding the Conference in 2004.
7. PLANS OF USING PART OF THE TREASURY TO A GREATER BENEFIT OF THE MEMBERSHIP
7.1 Liquid Crystals Today
H. Gleeson gave some details about the memorandum of agreement between the International Liquid Crystal Society and Taylor & Francis Ltd. In order to maintain the site and to update all the informations, a budget of $3600 per year (already approved by the previous board of directors) will be used.
7.2 Internet for the ILCS : Internet archiving
P. Palffy-Muhoray informed the Board that the web site of the Society (http://www.ilcsoc.org) has archive facilities for the Board members : bylaws and official business archiving can be uploaded/downloaded by any members of the Board of Directors (http://cpip.kent.edu/ILCS and http://www.ilcsoc.org/EXEC) ; all mail going to ilcs-ec@ and ilcs-bd@ are automatically archived.
P. Cladis asked for availability on the web site for a chat room.
7.3 Honors and Awards presentation
The Board expressed its disappointment at the absence of all of the honored members for the presentation and at the few attendees of the ceremony. It was stressed that good advertisements should be made for the Prizes. T. Lubensky mentioned that it should be nice to award also "middle age" researchers. It is also proposed that the Awards Committee and the President should have dinner with the laureates.
8. EXTERNAL RELATION COMMITTEE
As mentioned by T. Lubensky in the opening plenary lecture of the Conference, the Board agreed on the desirability of improving the image of the liquid crystals field in general that the Society should be active in bringing this about. In that respect the Board accepted the proposition of the President to create an External Relations Committee to strengthen our external perception and to increase the profile of liquid crystals to other disciplines. T. Lubensky accepted to chair this committee. He will make several propositions in the near future.